1. Field of Invention
The present invention relates to telecommunication networks, and more particularly, to methods and systems for selectively using either a packet-switched network or a circuit-switched network to make a telephone call.
2. Description of Related Art
To reduce the cost of telephone calls and to simplify management of communicational devices, it is often desirable for homes and offices to use telephones that connect to the Internet to originate calls. In particular, a telephone may connect to another telephone via the Internet by using voice-over-packet (VoP) technology. In one approach for providing voice-over-packet based telephone service, an analog telephone is connected to a media terminal adaptor (MTA), such as the Cisco ATA-186 analog telephone adaptor. The MTA is connected to the Internet via a high-speed connection, such as a cable modem or a DSL modem. A media gateway may connect the Internet to the public switched telephone network (PSTN).
One disadvantage with VoP technology is that certain calls originating from the MTA may be blocked. For example, calls to emergency service providers, e.g., calls to 911, are often blocked. Even if 911 calls are not blocked, caller location information may be unavailable to emergency service providers because the caller's telephone number may be associated with the gateway, rather than with a particular premise or other physical location.